How And Why To Use The Effects Loop In Guitar Amps 

If you had been my instructor, i'm convinced college algebra would have been a completely different experience. Keep up the good work Matt!

Gotta say, NEVER considered a volume pedal in my loops to allow for pull amp distortion without destroying the house. Need to try this when I get home.

I've been watching several videos from different channels trying to figure out what the efx loop really does in a chain. Finally got it from this video. It all makes sense to me now.

50 videos later and your explanation was the most straight forward. You're a Golden god!

Thank you, Philip. The volume pedal in the loop as a manual noise gate is a genius idea, and the answer to my conundrum, I'll wager.

why has it taken so long for someone to use plain language and explain this thoroughly? You have a gift Phil thanks for it

Send to the pedals then return to the amp. that's how I remember it :)

for those that didn't understand his explanation think of your amps front panel as a sentence. So you start reading at one end and finish at the other. If your input is at the left you start there and if your input is at the right you start there. I have a Marshall TSL Combo so my input is at the left. Then everything is in line after that. They don't all go to an output at the same time. So you start at the left. (I Will leave out a few buttons to make it less confusing). - input - gain - volume - Bright button - treble - mid - bass. Then it goes into the crunch or lead distortion channels which take over from clean when selected and it goes the same - lead - v0lume treble - mid - bass - Then it goes to the effects like reverb - Presence - effect - reverb. Then out to the speaker ...or simplified down. input/volume/EQ/Distortion/EFX and loop/ Reverb/ out. So your loop is any effect you put in it and will be after the distortion and before the reverb. pretty much all amps are set up this way.

Brilliant! Again, Phil, thank you! After all these years, I didn't even put it together to use a volume pedal in the effects loop to throttle the volume of a fully cranked tube amp. You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman.

Finally someone who gets straight to the point! plus no unnecessary and annoying jump cuts!👍

Thank you for making this simple. I was way overthinking things. Easy to understand when explained the correct way and I didn’t know the trick of using a volume pedal to get that tone at low volumes, that’s cool!

Great idea with the volume pedal. I'm using a helix into my evh5150 using the four cable method and I found I can achieve the same result with the helix volume control. Got the amp cranked and sounding awesome but without deafening myself.

The volume pedal trick in the effects loop is something I've never thought of. Clever boy Phil. I approve wholeheartedly.

Thank you! Picked the guitar back up a few months ago after having not played for 25+ years (teenager then) and all I had was a small practice amp with an overdrive pedal. When I got back into researching amps I just ended up buying a Line 6 so I could play around with different sounds and effects and figure out what I really wanted long-term before dumping tons of money into gear that I really didn't need. I've watched tons of videos on amps and effects and such, and you're the first person to explain it in true laymans terms where it's understandable to a noob how the pedals and amp work together. Thank You! Subscribed...

great info, no frills, no noodling on your guitar showing off...love it. thank you!

A diagram would work wonders to explain something like this, but I think you got the point across! The volume pedal thing blew my mind! Thanks!!

APPARENTLY I HAVE AN EFFECTS LOOP, THANKS FOR THE DIFFERENT NAMES FENDER

One of many questions, demystified!!! My list of questions are getting smaller! Again, Thank you Phil!!!

That volume pedal hack is superb! Especially as I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I HAD AN FX LOOP!!! Pre-amp out, good lord!

So many dislikes? You are so knowledgeable. Great no nonsense instructions and information. Great tone and great video! Thanks.

Why did it take me until now to stumble across this video??!! Fantastic, thank you!

Thanks! Now I can overdrive my Mark V without blowing out the windows. Yours is the first discussion I’ve seen of volume pedals in the effects loop.

Thanks for this. You seriously deserve a million plus subs.

never even heard of this channel or Philip McKnight until like 10mins and through Flipbook. so much useful info! the answers to questions nobody seems of want to answer! friggin love it, I'm gonna stick around for sure!

Love it when a video answers the exact question I was just asking myself. :)

You can also use the FX send on an amp to send it to a power amp of your choice, effectively using the 1st Amp as a Pre AMp only. I got a great result doing this to a little Orange Micro Dark where all the goodness is in the Valve Preamp section but not in it`s cheap solid state Power amp, sending out from the loop bypasses the 1st Amps power amp ( and you don`t need a dummy load on the Micro Dark cos the power amp isn`t valve ) I sent it to a Marshall 120/120 Power amp and the result was reallly good !

Thanks for not jamming on the guitar while never getting to the point about how this works. I remember watching a video where a guy played for 15 minutes and never actually showed you how to connect the cables to the amp and pedals.

I really like your idea on cranking the amp and using volume pedal. So.... you can play a song and when it comes time for your solo you can cut through and take the tops off everyone's heads! LOL Also your method allows one to push those tubes harder which is a good thing.

I have a Peavey Classic 50-212, which has a big, husky Clean channel with way too much headroom. (The Lead channel breaks up easily but also needs to be pushed in order to sound natural.) I had always wanted to get organic breakup out of the Clean channel, so I tried your method. I inserted my custom-made, top-secret Screamer clone into the loop and cranked both volumes on the top panel of the amp. Voila! Bingo! Damn it! THIS WORKS! I got beautiful, syrupy tone, which I could augment by dialing in distortion via the pedal. Interestingly, it also did something to the reverb circuit. The Classic 50 has just a two-spring unit, so I've tended to set it at 10 (out of 12). Well, I guess the reverb is output-dependent, because I had to turn it down to 6. Anyway, thanks for an excellent workaround. Other Tubers have said, "The overdrive pedal should always go into the guitar input on your amp," but you've shown that isn't true.

This is brilliant! I never thought of using my volume pedal this way.

i already knew the purpose of the effects loop, but had never considered the volume pedal trick before. great idea. thanks.

Most folks do not know there is 2 different types of gain in all amps ! Preamp gain can easily distort and power tube gain adds clean gain until near max volume and this gain can create the awesome harmonic overdrive revered by all rock players except metal players ! I use my FX send into a splitter pedal to run another tube amp set for clean tones because it has the preamp drive from the first amp and the splitter pedal sends back into the return of the first amp that has effects going on ! It results a much improved tone and fills the room without a lot of volume as the other amp speaker moves twice as much sound thru the air ! It basically sounds stereo or very close to it !

For years I was satistied with my epiphone les paul and line 6 POD 2 and a little practic amp. When I recently got back into guitar this effects loop confused me... I figured it out thankfully but this video would have been great about a year ago.. haha... thanks for again posting great stuff!

God bless you dude, finally someone breaks this down!!!

Cool idea ! using the loop and volume pedal as an attenuator/solo boost. You do really good advisable.Thanks !

GREAT EXPLANATION!! Thank you for not only being very informative, but quick. Your explanation was great and to the point without dragging it out. Just about ready to buy an amp and now I know that I want this feature. Keep up the great work!!

oh finally, I always wondered. thanks for the easy to understand breakdown + useful tips for volume control. love your channel man1

I’m so glad I found your site, for a week I’ve been trying to run my BIAS FX2 thru my badcat Cougar 5 amp which has an FX loop. Positive Grid, the maker of BIAS FX2 had me going round in circles. You would think they would know dut they didn’t. Thanks again Merrill

Awesome tip. Great to hear someone explain and provide an example about using the effects loop ESP with pedals and a volume pedal.

Good explanation, mate. Send to input of pedal - return to the output of the pedal. But if you have a stereo amp you will need 2 sets of TRS 1/4" stereo jack to Y splitter with 2 mono 1/4" jacks. Stereo amps like the Crate Power Block can use 2 effects loops in the send and return of the effects loops. I love my Crate! It also has RCA input jacks to patch in a CD player so you can play along with other music. Did I say I love my Crate 150 watt amp head? Well, I DO!

Great explanation! Now, I have a different idea on how to use the effects loop on my amp. I just usually use time based pedals such as reverbs and delays in the effects loop, but now I have a clear understanding how the effects loop works.

Appreciate the clarity and simplicity of the explanation; thanks!

All clearer now. Excellent video, thanks for sharing.

This is the best I have seen on effects loops. Would really lie to see the set up though. I am a visual learner on this stuff and need to see the looped pedals set up/ Thanks for this video.

Forgetting a very important part...power amp distortion. Sure you can crank your amp and use a volume/EQ/whatever pedal in the loop, but this only gets you preamp distortion, since the effects loop is patched in BEFORE the power amp, which means you're cranking the signal through the preamp, but then sending it to a pedal that lowers the signal before it hits the power amp. If you want preamp AND power amp distortion then you need a good attenuator, which allows you to crank the power amp as well, and then attenuate the signal before it gets to the speaker. However even then, you won't get speaker breakup, so it's still a compromise. Plus there are good attenuators but they cost a lot of money. There are cheapie that are crap. Of course it all depends on whatever amp you're working with, power amp design, tubes, etc, as to whether or not it sounds good. But using the volume pedal method you'll never know. Gotta get those power tubes cooking to find out!

Hi Phillip, I think you forgot to mention the most important effect that should make use of the send and return position, it's the looper pedal!! Great info, thanks👍

It's crazy I been playing guitar 10 years never really use effects/effects/loop at all.Now that I have a 5153 1x12 I wanna start this video helped a lot I wanna get a BBE sonic maximizer noise gate and delay and chorus and effects loop would be the key. My 6505+ 112 never used it because I heard it made the amp sound solid state so excited to try it out now!

DUDE! *bro hug* Finally someone who just goddamn says how it works. no mish mosh history lessons, personal asides, or opinion heavy mud. Just what, how and why. Thank you!

Thanks for the clarification, I had it all backwards with the effects loop.

A simple analogy is so useful…got it. Thanks man!

Thanks for this info, it’s hard to look it up because we are all sopped to all read know this but it did not until I finally found this and now I know, thank you

Good Info, I didn't hear you mention this additional info and I may be adding bad info, but I've always used the Send/Return to also chain my Delta Blues Tube type with my Yamaha Solid state type and then return into my multi FX (Boss GT8 currently) to give a good stereo vibe in my music room. It's "Preamp" so it's basically "passive" using the send return I'm not sending full amplified Power into my 2nd Amp. I'm just coming from a Stereo system background and I know back in the day you wouldnt want to use an EQ that had amplified power into tge front side of your High dollar amplifier, it's why you wanted to use a Passive EQ; they were active, like the crossovers we used but no amplified power, just active electronically for desired low cut, mid cut, high cut ......etc May give a little understanding to some guitarists with a background of the big boom systems of the 80's......lol

The f/x loop isolates the chain of external effects from the preamp, placing the f/x after the preamp. This way the preamp doesn't affect the f/x boxes. It keeps the f/x signals clean and unaltered by preamp signals and settings.

Nice. I don't see what's so confusing for people. I think the volume pedal as attenuator is brilliant. Wouldn't have thought of that. Good job!

love this video. it's one of the questions I've always wanted explained. but didn't want to look dumb. Good job!

Thanks for showing this with the amps and pedals, makes it easy to understand. Cheers

Again, a great instructional video from Phillip, this time about fx loops and how to use it, although I found it a little unclear about the over priced power soaks, compared the to the performance of a simple volume pedal. Thank you for the explanation.

Wow someone finally gave a straight answer, thank you so much

if youtube had a serious system for weighing usefullness appreciation or else of any content, lets say in digits between 1 and 100, id give this one a full 100. thx for sorting that out for me for once and forever phil :D !

Very informative. Thank you! I've never fully understood it's purpose....until now.

Hey Phill, your videos are truly informative. Thanks for doing these over the years. I've learned a lot from your sessions. Best regards.

Thanks for that info, useful to know about the pedal volume control for pushing the amp but keeping it quieter.

Best reasoning for a volume pedal outside of ambient swells.

We would always try our pedal board through the input jack, and then through the effects loop. Then see which one sounds better. The effects loop is useless if you’ve tried every conceivable setting, and it still doesn’t sound as good as the input jack. In that case, go with the input jack. Honestly, it sounds good. Either way on my old Peavey XXX. The entire pedalboard/effects chain can be turned on/off when ran through the effects loop- which is nice. Bottom line: See what sounds best, and set it up for your sound.

Great Vid brother...you taught an old dog some new tricks!

Thanks bro! Much better than any other video I watched explaining this!

You can also get an attenuater for amps without an effects loop. Organic overdrive, especially for us oldtimers.

Your videos are so informative. I don't know why you don't have 50k subs. So thanks for taking the time to make them. My question is this, does using a volume pedal to control the volume, as you demonstrated, restrict the ability to add effects in the effects loop. I mean, can you add effects in the chain from the volume pedal out and then back into the amp? I hope that makes since. Thanks again.

Liked and favorite. This was EXTREMELY informative and very well explained. The volume pedal trick was genius. Thank you A LOT.

Thanks Phillip! This makes more sense than anything I have seen!!!

You explained this very nicely and easily understood. Thanks Phil!

Dude, excellent video!! I've been trying to figure out the FX Loop thing for quite awhile now. Thank you so much for the instructional info...now I got my rig set up for the home recording that I want to do!!!! THANK YOU!!!

The difference is an attenuator will let you drive both the preamp and power amp. This simply allows you to drive the preamp. The Weber MASS attenuators are really nice. Not as expensive as some others either. Attenuators won't really improve the sound a lot if you want to bring a 40+ watt beast down to bedroom volume. They are excellent for being able to crank that beast and tame it so your neighbors won't be calling the cops though.

Anyone else get that feeling around 1:45 where you just like”.......OOOOOOOHHHH I get iiiiit”

Excellent video, buddy! I already use the effects loop, but the trick with the volume pedal for practicing was great! Thanks!

Holy shit. THANK YOU. Finally a basic explanation!

That helped me out a lot because this is the first time Ive ever had a good amp and Im not real good at setting things at all. I bought a Fender 112 and Ithink its too much for a practice amp.

In some amps like a jcm 2000 tsl 100 you have a effects loop blend so you can blend the effects in the loop and have effects before the amp, like a volume ,oh and the boss metal zone works best in the effects loop and just plug straight in the amp from the guitar,

FINALLLYYYYYYY someone who knows how to explain, thankssss

Thanks for this simple explanation. I just got a PRS mt15 which is stupid loud. Its my first amp that has an fx loop so im gonna try my eq pedal in there and try to get the volume lower

Wow - didn't know about the volume pedal in the FX loop thing! That is cool 👌🤠👌

Good video. You are certainly knowledgeable. I only take issue with pedal order. I once believed that anything that provided volume, gain or compression MUST be first in the signal chain. Later I learned that anything goes. If it creates your desired tone then it is good. I still haven't decided if I like my crybaby pre or post distortion. I definitely like my reverb/delays in the loop but have been happy in the past (pre effect loop days) at the amp input after all my other effects. Keep the videos coming I enjoy your stuff!

Thanks! I have a 100 Watt head that I've been considering selling because it's way to loud for home. Didn't realize I could run a volume pedal through the effects loop to tame the volume. Course those 25 Mesa heads sound real sick! I would love to get one.

Awesome info... I'm definitely trying that out, volume pedal in the loop, excellent

Another use is you can take your 30 watt amp and pre-amp out to a more powerful amp or pa system for larger venues even to an amplified mixer without over driving the other amp.

Wow this is a great video. I was just wondering how to use the effects loop on my amp. Keep up the great work. Your videos are top notch.

........ Great, but can you put links to 9 other things guitarist should know in description or tell me where to find it. Thanks...

Thanks alot I just picked up an old fender stage lead 212 and that's exactly how mine is

Right on Phillip. Thanks for this. I never truly understood this.

Effect chain. Putting the chorus delay after the preamp gain makes sense. you just have more cords knotting up on the floor to go bad.

finally!!! what a great explanation and AWESOME tip about the volume pedal! Can you do a video on slaving amps? why you ax? I just learned about that a few months ago. i.e. if I like the preamp of a modeling amp but hate the fact that it has a Solid state power section, by using the effects loops, I can send the preamp signal to a tube amp. I think thats what slaving means. But I know if you don't do it right, you can blow a transformer or something cray cray like that. but just imagine how many of these modeling amps might sound great with a tube power section! My fender floor sounds 100x times better through a tube head and cabinet than do the mustangs and its the same thing, just in a floorboard. a slaving video would be great. thanks!

Don't know if anybody mentioned it, Probably obvious, but Send comes in handy as tuner out.

Great! that thing with the volume pedal is great!

Good video Philip, never knew what that effects loop was for until I stumbled through here!

Very interesting. I use a Blues Jr. I like simple, but this was a great explanation.

This is the best explanation ever. One question though, if your amp has an FX loop is there any reason NOT to use it and plug all of your effects pedals to the front of the amp? Better, worse or the same?

For those who felt more confused by this than anything, there's a video from CSGuitars which explained this in half the time at half the spoken speed - way clearer.

Thank you so much for the info! I wish I knew that fx loop + volume pedal trick back when I was gigging!

I will try the effects loop thing, thanks. In my experience basically a modeling amp is a pain and trouble waiting to happen. With mine anyway, it doesn't remember all the work I spent to tweak my sound and I have to do that every time I turn it on. Also in my case there is a short somewhere and I get maybe half volume till I bump the top of the amp and it comes back at least for a while. All that extra circuitry is just more that can fail. I like my basic quality tube amp and I can add any effects I want.... or not.

Never knew what these "send-return" are..great vid, especially volume pedal part 👍